Jim Pohlad, left, owner and CEO of the Minnesota Twins, waits as Bud Selig, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, checks his hair before being photographed following the announcement of the 2014 All Star Game at Target Field in Minneapolis on Wednesday August 29, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Richard Marshall)

The Minnesota Twins and the Twin Cities couldn’t have done a better job of hosting the state’s third All-Star Game in history, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday. Selig said Minnesota responded even “better” than he could have hoped.

“This has been amazing,” said Selig, who turns 80 in two weeks and plans to retire in January.

“Everything has been so first-class, so good, that I can’t tell you how happy I am. I’m proud (of the Twins).”

Minnesota’s last All-Star Game was in 1985 at the Metrodome. The previous midsummer game was in 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium. The next time Minnesota can expect to host the game?

“Long after I’m gone, but they’ve done great,” Selig said.

Target Field will host the Big Ten baseball tournament next year.

The Twins have returned the beloved evergreens to center field at Target Field, but they are now above the black batter’s eye.

No all-star enjoyed the players parade in downtown Minneapolis before Tuesday’s game more than Twins closer Glen Perkins.

“The reception was unbelievable — chilling, to be honest with you,” Perkins said. “We went around the corner from Nicollet and turned down Seventh and kind of stopped there for a minute, and that’s where really the biggest crowd was. I stood up and waved and got a pretty good ovation. I think my wife (Alisha) teared up a little bit, and I was close.”

On Monday, the former Stillwater High and Gophers star wondered whether to ask all-star teammate Derek Jeter, playing his final season with the New York Yankees, to sign a baseball for him but decided against it.

“I get to be his teammate, and that’s a lot cooler,” said Perkins, 31. “And I wouldn’t do anything with the baseball anyways. Hopefully, he’ll put his autograph on my bat and jersey, and that’ll be good enough.”

Perkins had nearly three dozen family members and friends attend Tuesday night’s game, some in a private suite. The two-time all-star received a $25,000 bonus for being named to the American League team.

“They give you an all-star bonus; you’ve got to spend it,” he said.

All-star players receive memento rings among other perks.

Tickets on the street just to get into the All-Star Game were $300 at game time. Game-time tickets for Monday night’s Home Run Derby were $150 just to get inside Target Field.

Umpire Mark Wegner‘s conspicuous absence from the game seems to indicate that the major league crew chief from St. Paul will be working in the postseason, maybe the World Series.

Sharon Robinson, daughter of late baseball legend Jackie Robinson who is in town for the All-Star Game, said the movie about her father, “42,” was pretty much accurate and that she enjoyed it.

Catcher Butch Wynegar, 58, a two-time Twins all-star, is the hitting coach for the New York Yankees’ Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, who played the Twins’ Rochester club last weekend.

Former Minnesota state high school golf champion Chris Perry, 52, son of Twins hall of famer Jim Perry, who is in town for all-star activities, is working on his swing with hopes of playing on the Champions Tour.

Former Twins manager Frank Quilici, 75, is getting along well after a kidney transplant more than two years ago. Ex-Twin Jim “Mudcat” Grant, 78, in town for all-star events, has been hampered since a hip replacement operation nine years ago didn’t go well.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Twins owner Jim Pohlad said Tuesday that he hopes his team, last in its division, makes some deals before the trade deadline in two weeks.

“It’s exciting; it’s fun,” Pohlad said of the possibility. “I like transactions. But that doesn’t mean (general manager Terry Ryan) feels the same way. We’ll start talking about that stuff.”

Pohlad said the first half of the season — the Twins have a 44-50 record — was disappointing.

“For everyone,” he said.

The Twins last winter gave free-agent starter Ricky Nolasco, 31, a $49 million, four-year guaranteed contract. Nolasco, on the 15-day disabled list because of an elbow strain, is 5-7 with a 5.90 earned-run average.

“Struggling is a part of the game for every single player–we get that,” Pohlad said. “(But) is it struggling, or is there something fundamentally amiss?”

Pohlad dismissed the notion that Nolasco might have been hurt before he signed with the Twins.

Meanwhile, Phil Hughes (10-5, 3.92) has been an effective free-agent signing for the Twins for $24 million over three years, as has been all-star catcher Kurt Suzuki (.309), who signed for $2.75 million for one year.

“It goes both ways,” Pohlad said.

The Yankees’ Derek Jeter, playing in his last game at Target Field on Tuesday in the All-Star Game, received Twins first baseman Joe Mauer‘s locker in the American League clubhouse.

“He told me yesterday to leave some hits in there,” Jeter said of Mauer, who is hitting .271.

OVERHEARD

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, when asked Tuesday about the prolonged length of some major league baseball games: “(Hall of famer) Henry Aaron reminded me last night that in 20-some years, once he got in the batter’s box, he never got out. That was it.”

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